Currently, the risk analysis software SAPHIRE has implemented a common-cause failure (CCF) module to represent standard CCF methods such as alpha-factor and multiple Greek letter approaches. However, changes to SAPHIRE are required to support the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s 2007 “Risk...

Typical engineering systems in applications with high failure consequences such as nuclear reactor plants often employ redundancy and diversity of equipment in an effort to lower the probability of failure and therefore risk. However, it has long been recognized that dependencies exist in these...

Product innovation has transformed the minds of business people because of its ability to increase productivity. Other than increased productivity it also allows companies to extend the range of the available products to consumers as well as lowering the prices consumers have to pay. Product...

This dissertation addresses the crucial problem of how environmental policy uncertainty influences investments in energy technological change. The rising level of carbon emissions due to increasing global energy consumption calls for policy shift. In order to stem the negative consequences on...

In this paper, we consider a multiple-stage tandem production/inventory system producing a single product. Processing time at each stage is assumed to have a general stationary processing time distribution. The cost of holding work-in-process (WIP) inventory is different at each stage....

We consider a make-to-stock production/inventory system consisting of a single deteriorating machine which produces a single item. We formulate the integrated decisions of maintenance and production using a Markov Decision Process. The optimal dynamic policy is shown to have a rather complex...

Trade space exploration is a promising decision-making paradigm that provides a visual and more intuitive means for formulating, adjusting, and ultimately solving design optimization problems. This is achieved by combining multi-dimensional data visualization techniques with visual steering...

Thanks to advances in computing power and speed, designers can now generate a wealth of data on demand to support engineering design and decision-making. Unfortunately, while the ability to generate and store new data continues to grow, methods and tools to support data exploration have evolved...

All engineering students at Rowan University are required to take the 8-semester Engineering Clinic sequence wherein multidisciplinary student teams engage in semester-long design projects. In addition to projects that are funded by local industry, faculty research grants or departmental...

Since the early 1960s, the Beer Distribution Game (BDG) has been used to characterize the various instabilities that arise in multi-stage supply chains. Although an appreciable body of research exists for the BDG and its inherent nonlinear instabilities, there are three apparent technical voids...